Abstract
Climate change is fundamentally reshaping hydrological processes, intensifying extreme events, and exacerbating water supply–demand imbalances, thereby challenging conventional paradigms of water resources management. This review synthesizes recent advances in understanding climate-driven hydrological responses, water-related risk assessment, adaptive governance, and management strategies, and critically evaluates emerging approaches, including integrated water resources management, multi-objective allocation, nature-based solutions, engineering interventions, policy instruments, and artificial intelligence- and digital twin-enabled decision support. The evidence indicates a paradigm shift from supply-oriented management toward resilience- and risk-based adaptive governance that integrates hydrological, ecological, socioeconomic, and technological dimensions. Despite substantial progress, major scientific challenges remain, including the propagation of uncertainties across climate–hydrology–socioeconomic systems, limited integration of multi-source observations and process-based models, insufficient cross-sectoral governance capacity, and the lack of robust frameworks for evaluating long-term adaptation effectiveness. Future research should prioritize multi-scale coupled modeling and uncertainty quantification, AI-enabled digital twins for real-time decision support, resilience-oriented adaptive assessment, and integrated governance frameworks for coupled human–water systems. By integrating advances across hydrological science, intelligent technologies, and adaptive governance, this review provides a comprehensive framework for advancing next-generation climate-resilient water resources management and identifies key priorities for improving long-term water security under accelerating climate change.
